FROM XEREX TO DE QUIROS: A DISCOURSE ON THE NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY IN THE PHILIPPINES

The colorful print age, touted by Marshall McLuhan, was the forerunner of the industrial revolution. Media scholars and researchers attributed the industrial revolution as the beginning of the modern world, lending social and personal alteration. And, if a modern world then is gaged by the robustness of the newspaper industry and its audience, then the Philippines still remains as a developing country.





In the Philippines, newspapers have two types: tabloids and broadsheets. Both are distinguished in terms of size, circulation, and themes and ideologies.

A tabloid's spread is roughly 22 inches long. Circulation-wise, broadsheets are no match to tabloids. In 2003, the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI), with a circulation of 260 000 constituting half of the national circulation, is outpaced by the top three daily tabloids, People's Journal with 469 464; Bulgar, 450 000; and People's Tonight, 365 811.





Unlike broadsheets that are printed in English, most tabloids are published in vernacular languages, making them an easy reading for C, D, and E markets. Broadsheets are perceived as intellectual newspapers that contain explanatory and investigative reports as compared to tabloids that are considered as the “poor man's newspaper” because of their emphasis on sensational crime stories, gossip columns, and other so-called “junk food news.”

But do these perceptions still hold true?





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